Slow Food Movement = Slow Money Movement = Successful Sustainable Economy

  • Post Written by Jai Kai on May 9, 2010
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Have you ever considered where you are investing your money or who you are supporting when it comes to purchasing products and services from large scale companies. To really have a diversified and successful economy I believe there needs to be a shift of awareness from the general public towards supporting smaller local companies and entreprenuers who engage in sustainable business practices.

You may have heard of the slow food movement. Now, there is slow money idea and movement, championed by financial high-flier and author Woody Tasch (see video clip above). Slow Money is a movement which believes in a new way of investing, to bring heart and mind together in investing money. Woody Tasch wants to radically change people’s perception of investing; to move away from just considering returns on an asset class and to view investing as a cultural transformation and consciousness shift. It is about investing where our values say we should put our money.

At a time when the traditional Wall Street structures have imploded from the desire to achieve speedy profits, investing slow may be an increasingly popular mantra to put the economy back on its feet.

Tasch is going about promoting the Slow Money movement through encouraging us to develop a more personal connection to our food and investing in: sustainable agriculture, local first economies, niche organic farms & brands and local restaurants who supply local food. After a generation of industrial farming, most of us have lost the connection with our food. Check out the clip to the documentary below.

In the decades of rapid expansion and maximizing growth, we have derived high food yields from genetically modified grains and can now grow corn faster than at any point in history. But at what price? Soil fertility is denuded, dead zones are left behind, aquifers are being depleted, and obesity and hunger march hand in hand. We are depleting organic matter and destroying the web of life in the soil through dumping chemicals to boost short-term yields.

At a time when the future of financial capitalism is being deeply challenged, Tasch’s philosophy is thought-provoking. So passionate is he about connecting mind and heart in investing, that he is starting a pioneer venture fund dedicated only to financing small food enterprises which meet the criteria of supporting appropriate-scale organic farming and local food communities.

How many people are going to support and buy his view that the long way back to health for financial markets is through investing in sustainable agriculture?

Slow Money may appear to be a fringe movement at the moment. But so was socially responsible or ethical investing when it first emerged in the 1990s to now become the fastest growing investment area. So far Tasch has drawn support from large funds which invest in socially responsible companies such as Trillium Asset Management in Boston.

I believe he has a model for success. Not only is Tasch a successful venture capitalist, but he has the courage to question a system he has long been a part of and thrived in. He is also a shining example of someone who fully integrates his business with his core values. He is not just an armchair visionary; he takes action to support his beliefs.

How can you take action?

How about start by supporting local, organic and sustainable businesses. Every week I shop at the local farmers market and a small grocery store that carries local organic food. It makes me feel good that I can contibute to those smaller farms and producers that I share the same values with.


1 Comment on “Slow Food Movement = Slow Money Movement = Successful Sustainable Economy”

  • Helen said:

    Jai, you may like to check out the organisation Transition Towns, they’ve done some really interesting work with alternative currencies in UK towns.

    23 February 2010 at 8:16 pm

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